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Take Care of Your Teeth

Careful measurements of Washington's false teeth yield clues to the shape and size of his face.

Washington's storied dentures actually distorted his face, so it is difficult for scientists to get a true picture of what he might have looked like.

George Washington's dentures are storied. We now
know that they weren't, for the most part, made of wood. They were fashioned of
lead, wire, ivory, bone, and human and animal teeth. They were big, bulky, and
uncomfortable. Many believe his dentures were the reason Washington is never
shown smiling, and some believe they were the reason Washington was known for
his reticence. Those dentures were an important part of the picture we have of
Washington. In fact, there is no picture of Washington where he has all of his
teeth.

That
created a complicated problem in the attempt to de-age Washington. At nineteen,
Washington had a full set of his own teeth. As he lost teeth during his life,
he also lost bone in his jaw. When he used dentures, they distorted his face.

The
Mount Vernon team has studied the available Washington dentures and mapped the
interior volume of his mouth. They'll add the bone and subtract the facial
changes brought on by the false teeth. Maybe then we'll be able to see Washington
smile.